Trolley-bus gridlock in heart of the city
NEWCASTLE, 1962: THEN AND NOW
OUR great main image from the Chronicle archive shows Newcastle’s Grainger Street in 1962. If the architecture of the famous street hasn’t changed since then, the prevailing modes of transport certainly have.
We see small, austere, functional cars lined up in the city-centre gridlock along with trolleybuses.
You’ll need to be in your mid-50s or over to remember these distinctive bananayellow vehicles trundling around the streets of Newcastle.
The buses were approaching the end of their working life when our photograph was taken 56 years ago.
But they were a long-time everyday sight in the city, taking shoppers home to areas like Jesmond and Gosforth, as well as carrying shipyard workers to Walker.
Newcastle Corporation Transport introduced the trolleybuses in October 1935, as the old tram system was phased out.
The quiet, fume-free vehicles were powered by overhead electrical wires.
The fleet grew to more than 100 vehicles during World War II.
Between 1946 and 1949, in an ambitious modernisation effort, 186 new trolleybuses were ordered, both to replace the original fleet and to expand the system to 37 route miles.
Six batches of trolleybuses were ordered, comprising 100 three-axle and 86 two-axle types.
Chassis were by B.U.T. and Sunbeam, electrical equipment from English Electric and Metropolitan-Vickers, and bodywork by Metro-Cammell and Northern Coach Builders.
These trolleybuses were nicknamed ‘coffins’ by the crews, as they were six inches narrower than the more modern-looking eight-feet wide B.U.Ts.
They have nearly all been consigned to the scrapyard of history, but you can still see one of them - Newcastle Trolleybus 501 - at Beamish Museum in Co Durham.
It is the sole survivor of the batch of 30 Sunbeam S7 three-axle trolleybuses, and was delivered on July 27, 1948.
Based at Byker Depot, 501 operated for 17 years on Newcastle’s heaviest cross-city services.
Newcastle replaced its trolleybus services by motor buses in stages over the period 1963 to 1966. As part of this programme, the ‘coffins’ were withdrawn on May 30, 1965.
All were scrapped except 501, which was retained by Newcastle Museum of Science and Engineering and kept for some time at Byker Depot. After spending some years at various storage sites, 501 arrived at Beamish in 1974.
And now, there are plans for 501 to run once again. The museum’s Remaking Beamish project will include a 1950s Town, which is currently under construction, and includes plans for it to be served by a trolleybus route.
All aboard. Ding. Ding.